Killing Bees: Are Government and Industry Responsible?

(Earth Focus: Episode 44) Honey bees, the essential pollinators of many major US crops, have been dying off in massive numbers since 2006. This threatens the American agricultural system and the one in twelve American jobs that depends on it. There is growing evidence that a new class of pesticides — nerve toxins called neonicotinoids, which are used on most US crops including almost all corn — may be toxic to bees. The Environmental Protection Agency allowed neonicotinoids on the market without adequate tests to determine their toxicity to bees. Environmentalists want neonicotinoids banned until needed safety tests are done. While the US government is slow to act and neonicotinoid sales reap billions for the chemical industry, bees continue to die. Earth Focus reports. Via: http://www.linktv.org/video/8123/killing-bees-are-government-and-industry-responsible#comments

PETITION: Ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides before they devastate bee populations in the USA .. To: Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, jackson.lisap@epa.gov

Neonicotinoid, known as “neonics” for short, is a farm pesticide produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer, widely used in the U.S. to coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also common ingredients in many home gardening products. However, three new studies* link neonics to declining bee populations nationwide – fully a third of commercial beehives, over a million colonies, have disappeared over the past year. The pesticide works as a nerve poison, infecting their insect victims and interfering with their homing ability, which in turn prevents them from making it back to their hives.